Friday, June 30, 2017

Imagine a world, a fantastical city which is entirely
created by the most infamous magician known as Legend. A city that is the star
of a 5-night game played by real life players and an audience. A game known as
Caraval which presents the unthinkable beyond the point of imagination. This
very game was the only motivation for a young girl named Scarlett. Scarlett had
only one dream: to experience Caraval and perhaps meet the legendary legend.
This is the only dream this young reserved girl had to keep her sanity. To keep
herself and her sister Tella alive from their abusive, manipulative father and
marriage opposite a count whom she has never met. But this one dream just
happened to come true but not the way she or her sister expected. A letter came
suddenly promising two Caraval performance tickets. Scarlett was intrigued and
amazed but at the same time heartbroken over the promise of her unwilling
marriage. Unable to decide between her love for her brave sister Tella and her
sister’s life. After many twists, turns and complications they both set out to
Caraval with the help of a young sailor named Julian. But by doing this
Scarlett feared the worst by her father who had done much worse than just
physical abuse to Tella at this point. The fear of losing her sister, love
coming too close too soon and the magical dismay of Caraval shapes the rest of
the plot. The book follows through with Scarlett’s journey as she ventures to
find her sister through tragedy.

This book is a mystery fantasy novel which follows the life
of a young girl who has lost a dear sister and is indulged within a fantastical
city. This book is definitely one of a kind and very entertaining.
Caraval kept me interested the entire time although it started off slow and
very dry. It felt as though I was really at Caraval. There are exceptional
descriptions of the setting and plot that keep you on your toes and ready for
the next event. I rated Caraval 4 out of 5 based on my interest as a mystery
lover. Personally I would recommend this book to anyone but specifically
someone who loves suspenseful mystery novels with a great sense of imagination.
Imagination is the key to enjoying this book at its best. Being an imaginative
person helped me understand and stay interested in the book the entire time.
Caraval will bring the childhood dream and aspirations out of you along with a
very imaginative personality. Definitely recommended to anyone interested in a
fantasy novel.

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Poseidon helped Minos become king of Crete, but when
Poseidon sends a milk white bull for Minos to sacrifice, Minos keeps the bull
and sacrifices a different bull. Then Pasiphae decides to have a baby with the
bull. That leads to her baby having a bull head and the dislike of King
Minos. Pasiphae named the bull boy Asterion and loved him dearly. But the King
and his subjects did not like the boy and called him a freak of nature. King
Minos eventually locked him inside a stable where he could not be seen. Because
of the absence of Asterion, Pasiphae eventually went delirious. Ariadne, the
King’s daughter, pitied Asterion and comforted him when he was alone. When
Androgeos, the King’s most successful son was killed in Athens, he ordered
Daedalus to build a maze for several Athenian children to go into and die in.
One of them was Theseus, which was very eager to go into the maze and kill
Asterion. Asterion was the centerpiece of the maze, his job was to kill anyone
that came his way, he was also given the name “Minotaur”. Theseus killed the
Minotaur and returned to Athens with glory and deserted Ariadne on a deserted
island to die, while Daedalus tried to escape Crete with his son, by building wings but
he died, and Asterion died in a very gory way. And Poseidon was the one that
caused all of this to happen. Finally, he killed Androgeos.

This novel is very similar to the myth “The Minotaur” but is very
modernized(which means a fair amount of swear words). It is a very short read
but is very amusing and fun.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

When Simon, Cooper, Nate, Addy and Bronwyn were stuck in detention for being
wrongly accused of having their phones in their bags(the phones in their bags
weren't theirs), Simon died because of a peanut allergy reaction from a cup of
water. There were no epi-pens in the nurse’s office so he could not be saved.
The four kids were questioned and were all suspects of Simon’s murder. Simon
was the creator of a local gossip app and all four of them had secrets that
Simon was about to post on his app. Cooper’s secret was that he was
cheating on his girlfriend, Nate’s was that his mother was in a rehab center
for a coke addiction. Addy was also cheating on her boyfriend, and Bronwyn
cheated on a test(she was a very smart person and was going to Yale so this was
very serious). When all their secrets were opened to the public by the police, they were being convicted of murder and were cast out of social groups they used to be in. Cooper, Nate,
Addy, and Bronwyn were constantly harassed by police and were taunted at
school. The problem at their High School had grown into nationwide news. Then
after many days of answering questions for investigators and avoiding news
reporters, Nate was arrested by the anxious police. The police was worried about constant angry responses to the fact that they released the secrets of the
four. ::SPOILER:: Then the remaining three proved the police wrong by finding out (with
proof) that Jake, Addy’s boyfriend put the peanut oil in Simon’s cup of water
and put the epi-pens away and that Simon made the plan to kill himself and
bring four kids down with him. Simon did this because the four kids were
famous, smart, and attractive but they took that for granted. So he worked with
Jake to frame them.

The ending to this story was very unexpected, and Simon’s master plan of his
death was very smart and decisive. When you think it would be any of the four
that would be guilty, it is someone else. The tense moments of the novel were a
great experience.